Process for preparing, prior to filling, a wafer cornet, cornet thus obtained and installation for implementing the process

ABSTRACT

Process for preparing a cornet consisting of a substantially conical wafer ( 22 ) prior to filing of said cornet with an ice-cream; in order to preserve the crunchy nature of the wafer, the inner wall of the cornet is sprayed with liquid chocolate ( 23 ); this chocolate solidifies rapidly in order to form a coating layer for separating the wafer and the ice-cream. The process is characterized in that the inside of the cornet is sprayed with an excess quantity of chocolate to guarantee that no coating-gap zone remains on the inner wall of the wafer, the excess liquid chocolate collecting, under gravity, at the bottom tip of the corner, prior to solidification of said excess, the excess is sucked out of the cornet, subsequent solidification of the coating layer thus making it possible to establish a continuous barrier over the inner wall or the wafer.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application is a divisional of U.S. application Ser. No.10/599,311, filed Sep. 25, 2006, which is a National Stage ofInternational Application No. PCT/EP2005/001448, filed on Feb. 14, 2005,which claims priority to European Application No. 04290952.3, filed Apr.9, 2004, the entire contents of which are expressly incorporated hereinby reference thereto.

BACKGROUND

The invention relates to a treatment applied to wafer comets forpackaging a food product, the wafer being consumed by the user at thesame time as the food product thereby packaged. More particularly, theinvention relates to the production of comets for packaging anice-cream.

When an ice-cream is packaged in a conical cornet made from wafer, it isimperative to protect the wafer from contact with the ice-cream, withoutwhich the wafer loses its crunchy nature, which is a major handicap interms of marketing. It has thus been proposed, in a known manner, toproduce, on the inner wall of the conical wafer cornet, a layer of acoating agent consisting of chocolate, this layer forming a barrierbetween the wafer and the ice-cream packaged therein. The production ofthis sealing barrier involves a constraint, since it is necessary forthe barrier to be totally continuous, otherwise the least gap in thecoating gives rise to a loss of the crunchy nature of the wafer at leastin the entire zone surrounding said gap. In order to prevent any risk ofa fault and thus to guarantee the quality of the product marketed, itwas thus decided to significantly increase the quantity of chocolateused as inner coating for the cornet, said chocolate being deliveredinto the cornet in the liquid state by means of a spray head that spraysit into the upper part of the cornet. However, although the sprayingthus carried out prevents any risk of a gap, it results in a highlyexcess quantity of chocolate being used compared with that which wouldbe just necessary to produce a continuous, uniform layer on the innerwall of the wafer cone such that the excess flows towards the bottom tipof the wafer cone, i.e. towards the point of the cone. This situationgives rise to a number of drawbacks: firstly, if the lower part of thecone is filled with chocolate, the consumer purchasing an ice-cream coneis left with a product that contains a smaller quantity of ice-creamthan that which he was entitled to expect when seeing the external sizeof the cone, since the lower part of the cone is filled with chocolate;secondly, the quantity of chocolate used in manufacture is markedlygreater than that necessary for coating the wafer, such that the costprice of the product is significantly increased; thirdly, the chocolatethat has flowed into the lower part of the cone forms a mass which coolsmore slowly than the thin coating layer with the result that themanufacturing cycle for the finished product is longer because it is notpossible to insert the ice-cream before the chocolate has solidified.

SUMMARY

An object of the present invention is to remedy the above-mentioneddrawbacks in a simple manner: to avoid the loss of the crunchy nature ofthe wafer, the inner wall of the wafer is sprayed with a fluid coatingagent, for example chocolate, in an excess quantity compared with thatwhich would be strictly necessary to establish a continuous layer overthe inner wall of the wafer, such that an excess of coating agent flowsto the bottom of the cone, and, in a second stage, using a pipette, theexcess coating agent is sucked out and this excess is recovered and thenrecycled with a view to the spraying of another wafer cornet. In thisway, the cost arising from the use of excess coating agent iseliminated, the dissatisfaction on the part of the consumer iseliminated since the entire inner volume of the cornet thus prepared maybe filled with the food product the customer wished to purchase, forexample an ice-cream, and extension of the manufacturing cycle iseliminated since only the coating agent in the form of a thin layer overthe wafer remains in the cornet.

Consequently, a subject of the present invention is a process forpreparing a container consisting of a wafer, said preparation beingcarried out prior to the filling of said container with a food product,the wall of said container extending between an outwardly open mouthzone and a narrower zone forming an outwardly closed end, in whichprocess, in order to preserve the crunchy nature of the wafer, thecontainer is arranged such that the closed, narrow end of the waferforms the bottom tip of the container and the inner wall of thecontainer is sprayed with a liquid coating agent, said coating agentbeing capable of solidifying rapidly in order to form a coating layerintended, after the food product has been placed in the container, toseparate the wafer and the food product, said coating layer beingprovided in order, subsequently, to be consumed at the same time as thewafer and said food product, characterized in that the inside of thecontainer is sprayed with an excess quantity of coating agent that issufficient to guarantee that no coating-gap zone remains on the innerwall of the wafer that is to come into contact with the food product,the excess liquid coating agent collecting, under gravity, at the bottomtip of the container, and in that, prior to the solidification of saidexcess, the excess is sucked out of the container, subsequentsolidification of the coating layer thus making it possible to establisha continuous barrier over the inner wall of the wafer.

In a preferred embodiment, the excess coating agent sucked out isrecycled to the supply for spraying the inside of a container. Provisionmay advantageously be made for the coating agent to be sucked up via apipette of which one end has sufficiently small dimensions to be able tobe positioned close to the bottom tip of the container, said endincluding at least one suction orifice, and in that, after suction, theorifice(s) is (are) supplied with a gaseous flow in order to expel anypossible clogging particles that might be found therein: in fact, duringhandling, wafers frequently generate small particles that, after thespraying operation, are in suspension in the excess coating agent in thebottom part of the cornet, these particles being sucked out at the sametime as said excess and being capable of clogging the suction orificesof the pipette. The blowing-through of a gaseous flow allows theparticles to be ejected and thus any clogging of the suction pipettes tobe prevented. It is possible for the suction orifice(s) to have agaseous flow blown through it (them) which ejects the particles in thesame direction as the passage direction of the flow of recycled coatingagent. It is possible to arrange the suction orifice(s) in the vicinityof the base of a pipette that slides in a guide capable of scraping theouter wall of said pipette in order to cause the particles of wafersticking to said outer wall to fall, under gravity, into the container.It is also possible to produce the suction orifice(s) by arranging it(them) laterally on the pipette, and provision is made for the guide toinclude a chamber for blowing the gaseous flow in order to expel theparticles of wafer wedged in the orifice(s).

In a preferred application of the process according to the invention,use is made, as container, of a substantially conical cornet. Thecoating agent may be chocolate. In a particularly advantageousapplication, the food product is a highly viscous product, particularlyan ice-cream.

A further subject of the present invention is a container formed from awafer coated on the inside with a continuous layer of coating agent,characterized in that it is obtained by means of the process as definedabove.

A final subject of the present invention is an installation forimplementing the process as defined above, this installation comprising,firstly, a conveyor with discontinuous displacement in successive steps,said conveyor including elements on each of which at least onereceptacle is provided in order to receive a container formed by awafer, the wall of said container extending between an outwardly openmouth zone and a narrower zone forming an outwardly closed end, saidcontainer being arranged in its receptacle such that its closed endforms the bottom tip of the wafer and, secondly, a spray station onwhich is arranged, in line with each container carried by a conveyorelement that arrives opposite the spray station at a stop instant ofsaid conveyor, a spray head capable of spraying the inner wall of thewafer, said spray head being able to move between a low position inwhich, in order to distribute the coating agent, the head is positionedin or in the vicinity of the mouth of the container, and a high positionthat allows the displacement of the conveyor, characterized in that itincludes, thirdly, a suction station on which is arranged, in line witheach container carried by a conveyor element that arrives opposite thesuction station at a stop instant of the conveyor, a suction pipettethat includes, at its bottom end, at least one suction orifice, thesuction pipette being able to move between a low position, in which itsbottom end arrives in the vicinity of the bottom tip of the wafer, and ahigh position that allows the displacement of the conveyor, said suctionstation being located downstream of the spray station in the directionof displacement of the conveyor.

In a preferred embodiment, the high position of each pipette of thesuction station brings the suction orifice(s) into a chamber where agaseous flow blows through the orifice(s). Provision may be made foreach pipette to include an inner channel via which the excess coatingagent is conveyed to a reservoir under reduced pressure, the gaseousflow that blows through the orifice(s) originating from an air inletprovided in each chamber, this blowing air being sent towards thereservoir as is the sucked-out coating agent. The reservoir may beequipped with a device for adjusting the air pressure prevailingtherein. The reservoir may supply a pump that provides the coating agentto the spray station at a pressure that is greater than atmosphericpressure.

According to an advantageous embodiment, the installation according tothe invention employs a coating agent that is fluid when hot andsolidifies by simple cooling to ambient temperature; between, on the onehand, the pump that provides the coating agent to the spray station and,on the other hand, the spray station itself, a heat exchange may beinterposed to guarantee maintenance of the coating agent at atemperature that is sufficient for the fluidity of said agent to allowcorrect functioning of the spray and suction stations and alsocirculation without clogging of the coating agent upstream anddownstream of the reservoir.

According to a preferred embodiment, at least one filter is interposedon the pipes for circulating the coating agent such that the particlesof wafer blown by the gaseous flow in the suction orifices and dispersedin the coating agent are halted and removed from the circulating coatingagent. Advantageously, the installation includes a filter arranged onthe circulation pipe connecting the heat exchanger and the spraystation.

As container, it is preferred to use a substantially conical cornet. Thecoating agent is advantageously chocolate, particularly when the productpackaged in the container is an ice-cream.

In order to make the subject of the invention more easily understood, adescription will now be given, by way of purely illustrative andnon-limiting example, of an embodiment shown in the appended drawing.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

FIG. 1 is a general diagram of an installation implementing the processaccording to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view on II-II in FIG. 1 of a conveyor equippedwith a spray station and a suction station, these two stations being inthe process of functioning and the conveyor being stopped;

FIG. 3 shows a diagrammatic view, similar to FIG. 2, in which the sprayand suction stations have been raised into the high position, theconveyor moving in the direction of the arrow F;

FIG. 4 shows, in elevation, a suction pipette, the bottom part of thispipette being shown in axial section;

FIG. 5 shows, in elevation, a pipette guide that includes a blowingchamber;

FIG. 6 shows a plan view of the guide in FIG. 5 on VI-VI in FIG. 5;

FIG. 7 shows a section through the guide of FIG. 5, on VII-VII in FIG.6.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

With reference to the drawing, it may be seen that an installationaccording to the invention includes a horizontal conveyor denoted by 1overall, the conveyor 1 consisting of a plurality of elements that areall identical to one another, each element having, seen in plan, arectangular general shape and including eight identical receptacles 2arranged side by side. The receptacles 2 have a frustoconical shape andare supplied by an automatic dispenser (not shown) of conical wafers.The major axis of the rectangular elements of the conveyor isperpendicular to the direction of displacement of said conveyor 1, thisdirection corresponding to the arrow F₀ in FIG. 1.

The conveyor 1 is associated with a spray station that is denoted by 3overall. The spray station includes as many spray heads 4 as there arereceptacles 2 on one and the same conveyor element, each receptacle 2being able to arrive in line with a spray head during the displacementof the conveyor. The conveyor 1 has discontinuous displacement insuccessive steps, the step of the conveyor corresponding to the stepseparating two successive elements of said conveyor. The spray heads 4of the spray station 3 are capable of moving vertically relative to theconveyor, in the direction of the arrows G₁ and G₂ in FIGS. 2 and 3. Thesupport relative to which the spray heads 4 can move in translation hasnot been shown in the drawing with a view to simplification, nor has thecontrol of the translational movements of these spray heads.

At a distance of three displacement steps of the conveyor, there is,downstream of the spray station 3, a suction station 5 that is, overall,arranged above the conveyor, parallel to the spray station 3. When theconveyor is stopped between two successive displacements, an element ofthe conveyor presents, in line with the suction station 5, the eightreceptacles 2 that it includes. In line with each receptacle, thesuction station includes a suction pipette 6 consisting of a verticaltube of which the lower end 6 a is conical and closed off and of whichthe upper end includes a connector 6 b integral with a means for drivingin vertical translation, not shown. Between these two ends, the suctionpipette 6 passes through a guide denoted by 7 overall, the guide 7 beingintegral with a support 8 forming a fixed element of the suction station5.

Shown in detail in FIGS. 5 to 7, the guide 7 is a piece of approximatelycylindrical general shape, and it includes, along its axis, a bore 9 ofwhich the central part widens in order to form a chamber 10. Theexternal diameter of the pipette 6 and the diameter of the bore 9 arepractically identical except for the sliding clearance. An air-inletchannel 11 opens out into the chamber 10 and is connected to a supply ofcompressed air at 4 bar. In the lower part of the pipette 6 are suctionorifices 12 arranged laterally just above the conical part closing thelower end 6 a of the pipette 6. All the suction pipettes 6 of thesuction station 5 are connected to a manifold and, from there, via aheat-insulated pipe 13, to a reservoir 14 maintained at reduced pressureby virtue of a pump 15.

The output from the reservoir 14 is obtained via a valve 16 and then apump 17 supplying a heat exchanger 18 of which the output is obtainedvia a filter 19. The filter 19 supplies, via a pipe 20, the inlet of thespray heads 4, the surplus supply being conveyed by the pipe 21 back tothe reservoir 14. The connecting pipes, on the one hand between thereservoir 14 and the heat exchanger 18 and on the other hand between theheat exchanger 18 and the filter 19, and the pipes 20 and 21 arethermally insulated and, like the pipe 13, include a circulation of hotliquid to minimise heat losses.

Each receptacle 2 of the conveyor 1 receives, via an automaticdispenser, a conical wafer cornet denoted by 22 in the drawing. Thecornet 22 is presented in line with a spray head 4 and, when theconveyor is stopped between two successive steps, the spray head 4descends in the direction of the arrow G₁ in FIG. 2 to deliver into themouth forming the top part of the cornet hot liquid chocolate 23supplied by the pipe 20. The hot chocolate is sprayed onto the innerwall of the wafer cornet 22, and sufficient chocolate is sprayed so thatit can be guaranteed that no gap remains in the coating of said innerwall. In order to guarantee the absence of such gaps, the quantity ofchocolate sprayed must be an excess: for example, 12 grams of chocolatewill be sprayed into a cornet although the coating layer remaining onthe wall of the wafer is approximately 6 grams. The remaining 6 gramscollect in the bottom part of the cornet, as may be seen clearly inFIGS. 2 and 3 in the case of the cornets between the spray and suctionstations. When this spray operation is completed, the spray head 4 risesback up in the opposite direction from the arrow G₁.

At the same time, in line with the suction station, the suction pipette6 comes into a low position, as indicated in FIG. 2, its conical lowerend 6 a arriving at the bottom of the wafer cone. As each suctionpipette 6 is connected by the pipe 13 to the reservoir 14, which is atreduced pressure, liquid chocolate located in the bottom part of thecornet is sucked up via the orifices 12 made at the bottom of eachpipette. The sucked-up chocolate is always liquid because the time ittakes to move from the spray station 3 to the suction station 5 isapproximately 5 seconds, which is insufficient for the chocolate to havetime to solidify. When this suction has been completed, the suctionpipette 6 is raised back into the high position via its connector 6 b,and it slides upwards through the guide 7 until the orifices 12 are inthe chamber 10. At this point, compressed air supplied by the air inlet11 passes through the orifices 12 and unblocks them by blowing if waferparticles have been retained in said orifices, these particles havingbeen conveyed by the liquid chocolate when it was sucked up. The guides7 also allow, given the fact that the orifices 12 are arrangedlaterally, the pipettes 6 to be scraped and the broken, large waferparticles to fall again down into the bottom of the cones, whereas theblowing in the guides makes it possible to expel the particles wedged inthe thickness of the wall delimiting the orifices 12.

When the spray heads 4 and the suction pipettes 6 have returned to theirhigh position, they are passed above the wafer comets and thereceptacles 2 such that the conveyor 1 is able to advance by one step,as indicated by the arrow F in FIG. 3. After the excess chocolate hasbeen sucked up, there remains very little liquid chocolate in the bottomof the cornet, so the remaining chocolate will rapidly solidify. It isthus possible fairly rapidly to make provision for the placing of anice-cream in the cornet thus prepared, this ice-cream filling thechocolate-covered wafer cornet. Given the large quantity of chocolateused in spraying, there is no gap in the coating over the inner wall ofthe wafer and thus no risk of the disappearance of or a reduction in thecrunchy nature of the wafer when the cornet is filled with ice-cream.

As has been ascertained from the preceding description, the excesschocolate is sucked up through the action of the reduced pressureprevailing in the reservoir 14. Chocolate is ejected via the spray heads4 through the action of the pressure of the supply generated by the pump17 in the pipe 20. The reduced pressure is maintained in the reservoir14 by the pump 15. The wafer particles ejected from the orifices 12 byvirtue of the compressed air sent via the air inlet 11 are sent back viathe pipe 13 into the reservoir 14 and then filtered out in the filter 19after the chocolate has been heated up by the heat exchanger 18. In thisway, the hot chocolate conveyed into the spray heads 4 is free fromwafer particles and the excess supply not used by the spray heads 4 isconveyed back to the reservoir via the pipe 21 to ensure that thetemperature of the chocolate is maintained.

It should be understood that various changes and modifications to thepresently preferred embodiments described herein will be apparent tothose skilled in the art. Such changes and modifications can be madewithout departing from the spirit and scope of the present subjectmatter and without diminishing its intended advantages. It is thereforeintended that such changes and modifications be covered by the appendedclaims.

The invention is claimed as follows:
 1. An installation for implementinga process comprising a conveyor with discontinuous displacement insuccessive steps, the conveyor comprising elements on each of which atleast one receptacle is provided in order to receive a container formedby a wafer, the wall of the container extending between an outwardlyopen mouth zone and a narrower zone forming an outwardly closed end, thecontainer being arranged in the receptacle such that its closed endforms a bottom tip of the wafer and a spray station on which isarranged, in line with the container carried by each of the elementsthat arrives opposite the spray station at a first stop instant of theconveyor, a spray head capable of spraying an inner wall of the wafer,the spray head being moveable between a low position in which, in orderto distribute a coating agent, the head is positioned in or in thevicinity of the mouth of the container, and an upper position thatallows the displacement of the conveyor, a suction station on which isarranged, in line with the container carried by each of the elementsthat arrives opposite the suction station at a second stop instant ofthe conveyor, a suction pipette that includes, at its bottom end, atleast one suction orifice, the suction pipette being moveable between alow position, in which its bottom end arrives in the vicinity of thebottom tip of the wafer, and an upper position that allows thedisplacement of the conveyor, the suction station being locateddownstream of the spray station in a direction of displacement of theconveyor, and in that the upper position of the pipette of the suctionstation brings the suction orifice into a chamber where a gaseous flowblows through the orifice.
 2. An installation according to claim 1,wherein the suction orifice is arranged laterally in the vicinity of abase of the suction pipette, and in that the gaseous flow blown in thechambers expels particles of wafer wedged in the orifice.
 3. Aninstallation according to claim 1, wherein the displacement of thesuction pipette between its low position and its upper position takesplace by means of a guide that scrapes an outer wall of the pipetteassociated with it in order to cause the particles of wafer sticking tothe outer wall to fall, under gravity, into the container.
 4. Aninstallation according to claim 1, wherein the pipette includes an innerchannel via which an excess coating agent is conveyed to a reservoirunder reduced pressure, the gaseous flow that blows through the orificeoriginating from an air inlet provided in the chamber, the gaseous flowbeing sent towards the reservoir with the excess coating agent.
 5. Aninstallation according to claim 4, wherein the reservoir is equippedwith a device for regulating the air pressure prevailing therein.
 6. Aninstallation according to claim 4, comprising a pump that provides thecoating agent to the spray station at a pressure that is greater thanatmospheric pressure.
 7. An installation according to claim 3, whereinthe coating agent is a fluid when hot and solidifies at ambienttemperature, and further comprising a pump that provides the coatingagent to the spray station, and a heat exchange interposed between thepump and the spray station.
 8. An installation according to claim 7,comprising at least one filter located on circulating pipes forcirculating the coating agent.
 9. An installation according to claim 8,comprising a filter located on the circulation pipes connecting the heatexchanger and the spray station.
 10. An installation according to claim1, wherein the container is a substantially conical cornet.
 11. Aninstallation according to claim 1, wherein the coating agent ischocolate.
 12. An installation according to claim 1, wherein anice-cream is a product packaged in the container.